Blink-182'S Mark Hoppus To Share Experience With Music Entrepreneurs At Midem

midem announces that Mark Hoppus, co-founder of American rock band Blink-182, will be sharing his experience in the Artists Speak to Artists sessions, a series of conversations between an artist and the audience that promise to be a key attraction at midem's Direct2Fan Camp.

With a full programme of discussions and workshops on how direct-to-fan can be leveraged by the music industry, the camp is the place to find out how this business model can accelerate outreach to global audiences. The Direct2Fan Camp runs throughout the four-day midem market, organised by Reed MIDEM, which takes place in Cannes, 26-29 January 2013.

Other acts so far confirmed for the Artists Speak to Artists programme include singer/songwriter Julia Nunes, an indie sensation with over 50 million plays on YouTube and who raised $77,888 through crowdfunding platform Kickstarter; and Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky, a multimedia artist whose DJ app has clocked up more than 10 million downloads.

In addition to these daily Artists Speak to Artists sessions, midem has put together a comprehensive schedule focusing, amongst other topics, on the different elements of a successful direct-to-fan strategy:
• Saturday 26: artist management and funding
• Sunday 27: distribution and retail
• Monday 28: publishing and labels
• Tuesday 29: promotion and social media

Speakers will be more accessible than ever and available for one-to-one discussions after their sessions.

New this year, the D2F from A to Z learning sessions will feature a snapshot every morning of different ways to take music from the studio to a global audience, with speakers including Amanda Palmer's manager Kevin Wortis, Creative Artists Agency's head of Digital Strategy and Marketing Glenn Miller, DIY consultant Brian Thompson, as well as a discussion on the impact of direct-to-fan on publishing between Mary Megan Peer, peermusic, and Justin Kalifowitz, Downtown Music Publishing.

The camp's line-up also includes the D2F Debates, where participants can hear how direct-to-fan is impacting the business of managers, retailers and labels, with panel discussions involving Rostrum Records, Record Store Day, Cooking Vinyl, Rough Trade Records, Caroline Distribution and Glassnote Entertainment Group, among others.

There will also be Hands-on Workshops, where participants can get mentored by experts over a series of four workshops dedicated to a broad range of topics among which crowdfunding and music video promotion.

"Direct-to-fan is an increasingly effective tool for independent artists, labels, publishers, managers, marketers, and others in the music industry," said Bruno Crolot, Reed MIDEM's Director of Music Markets. "This rapidly developing strategy is being adopted by those looking to build and leverage a fan community. midem's Direct2Fan Camp is the place to find out how this vector can accelerate an artist's career."